Johnny Basil
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Johnny Basil, played by Lance Reddick, is a character on the HBO drama Oz. An African American police detective, he is an undercover narcotics officer working under the false identity of Desmond Mobay and trying to bust the drug trade in Oz. The character of Mobay is a Jamaican who wishes to work with the gangsters within Oz. He gets too deep undercover though in becoming a full blown heroin addict and kills another inmate. The police officer in him comes out after he is scorned by Augustus Hill and he confesses to murder. He serves time in the police unit of Oz unit J where he is eventually killed by Clayton Hughes.
[edit] Season 4 Part I
Basil arrives prepared to acclimate to the Homeboys, the African American drug dealers within Emerald City. Getting a job as the Warden's assistant to keep him informed, he is able to regularly email his partner Nancy Mears over what is happening within Oz. Warden Leo Glynn is the only person in Oz who knows of Basil's true identity and warns him about a similar operation that took place resulting in the death of another undercover cop Paul Markstrom. Inside Em City, he rooms with Augustus Hill who tells him that if he wants drugs, he should go to Kenny Wangler and the Homeboys. When Wangler and Junior Pierce die in a shooting that takes place, Basil asks inmate Arnold "Poet" Jackson if he can join the Homeboys. Homeboy leader Simon Adebisi is suspicious of Basil and asks him for a Jamaican drug dealer who can vouch for him. Basil has planned a potential parolee at Lardner named Nester Parks to talk as a means of having an easy parole hearing. His partner Nancy visits him posing as his girlfriend so he cannot be viewed as a cop. Augustus Hill recognizes her however from the night of his arrest and does not say anything until later on. He suspects that the gangster inmates the Homeboys, Italians, and Latinos will ask him to snort heroin in order to prove that he is not a cop. They know he has bought the heroin but don't know if he has used any, which he has not. He wants to fake the usage of it but cannot do so as they lay it out for him to take it off of the gymnasium floor. He takes the heroin and ends up in the hole during a drug shakedown. When released from the hole, he is addicted but Simon Adebisi does not yet see him as worthy for being one of them so he has him take another test. This test involves being able to take a punch and as a result, Chucky Pancamo the Italians leader and the most physically built of the inmates uses him as a "heavy bag." He is severely beaten, but is so like a man so he gains some of the gangsters' confidence. The Poet gives him some heroin as a consolation prize which he uses immediately. Basil then visits his partner who suspects he is using. He urges her and Warden Glynn both that he does not use and it was a one time problem. Meanwhile, the gangsters vote in a straw poll over whether or not he is worthy of membership. Pancamo votes yes, Adebisi votes no, and Latino leader Enrique Morales abstains. With a tie vote, he must kill an inmate making it look like an accident to be let in. Meanwhile, Bruno Goergen, a fellow cop arrives in Oz for killing a weapons dealer. Goergen is a white cop who is openly racist to the Latino, Italian, and Black inmates and even gets beaten by Leroy Tidd and Mondo Browne for using racial epithets in their presence. He does not care, however, because he blackmails Basil to help him in exchange for keeping his undercover identity secret. Concerned, he lures Goergen to the elevator shaft where he pushes him off, making it look like he has tripped. He lures Basil to the shaft by saying Augustus Hill has found out he is a cop and wishes to expose him. This gets him membership as a gangster. Meanwhile he is snorting heroin so much that it is making him forget to cover up his accent and Augustus Hill hears him talk without an accent as he is drugged up.
A new unit manager named Martin Querns comes to Em City empowering Adebisi, Pancamo, and Morales. He allows them and their followers to do as they wish as long as their is no violence in Em City. Drugs thereby flow freely and Basil along with Browne and Tidd must bring new customers on a daily basis. Basil is using money that he brought to Oz to pretend to find his "babies" and it makes Adebisi wary of the fact that he could indeed be undercover. He meanwhile snorts all the heroin that he can as he is a full blown addict. The gangsters decide that Basil must sell drugs in front of them to prove that he is not a cop. Warden Glynn suggests that another undercover detective should pose as a customer to save him from the gangsters. This cop Cecil Brand is seen purchasing drugs from Poet and Pancamo assures Adebisi that Basil is indeed worthy of membership. Meanwhile Querns has transferred in several black inmates and correctional officers giving Adebisi unlimited power in Em City. Pancamo and Morales leave along with their respective inmates and as a result, Basil is viewed more skeptically by Adebisi. After being criticized by Supreme Allah, Mondo Browne and Leroy Tidd attack Basil for making them look lazy when dealing drugs. In the meantime, Detective McGorry from homicide is interrogating inmates over who killed Bruno Goergen. Mobay agrees to help her if he finds sufficient information. Adebisi finds out the identity of Cecil Brand and commands Basil to kill him. Basil is about to until Augustus Hill confides to him that he realizes he is undercover. Hill tells Basil that he wont talk but that Basil is a fraud for killing people and using drugs, a move that gets Hill beaten severely. Basil realizes the message though and confesses to McGorry and Warden Glynn that he murdered Goergen. He is tried for murder and later sent to Unit J, the unit for bad police.
[edit] Season 4 Part II
In Unit J, Basil no longer under the identity of Mobay rooms with Clayton Hughes and a sheriff named Alvin Yood. Yood is a white sheriff from midstate who is imprisoned for assaulting a teenager in an interrogation and is a relatively comedic person to be around. Hughes, on the other hand, is a C.O. turned Black militant who often berates Yood for being White and Basil for taking his side in the arguments. Hughes is losing his mind in being arrogant and verbally abusive and Basil, Yood, and Officer Claire Howell are growing tired of his mouth. They realize though that Warden Glynn is the closest thing Hughes has to a father and will not transfer him out. During mealtime, the Homeboys work the cafeteria and urinate in Basil's food for betraying them. Basil is urged to visit his wife, lieutenant, and partner Nancy by the Warden. He apologizes to his lieutenant who is sorry to lose him to jail and Nancy Mears who is angered by his presence. Nancy tells him that its police like Basil which make a bad image for cops everywhere and she is not sorry that he got sent to prison for doing drugs and murder while undercover. It can also be assumed from the argument as Nancy states "Every day I fight against that image and every day some scumbag like you fucks it up" that she is angered that he has given African Americans a bad image as police officers. Meanwhile, he sees his wife who he is scared to see as he is angered that he let her down and got incarcerated. After a visit with his wife, Clayton Hughes murders him in Unit J just for the hell of it and is sent to solitary as a result.
